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Paris Accord Test Olivia
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US opts out of G7 pledge calling Paris climate deal 'irreversible'
Jun 12, 2017 | The Associated Press
By Paolo Santalucia and Nicole Winfield
The United States refused Monday to sign on to a Group of Seven pledge that calls the Paris climate accord the “irreversible” global tool to address climate change. -
Hawaii rebels against Trump with a law to uphold the spirit of the Paris climate accord
Jun 7, 2017 | The Los Angeles Times
By Kurtis Lee
Amid a widening partisan divide over climate change, Hawaii lawmakers have a message for President Trump: The Paris agreement is needed. -
Gov. Tom Wolf 'treading softly' between criticizing Trump's Paris accord decision and supporting energy jobs
Jun 11, 2017 | The Morning Call
By Logan Hullinger
President Donald Trump's recent decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord has created an ideological divide among states. -
Auto makers unshaken by Trump's move on Paris accord
Jun 12, 2017 | Rubber and Plastics News
By Michael Wayland
President Trump's decision to withdraw from the 2015 Paris international climate treaty hasn't shaken auto makers' resolve to continue developing cleaner, more fuel-efficient vehicles. -
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Jun 12, 2017 | DMA 14- NBC
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Jun 12, 2017 | DMA 14- ABC
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Global Business
Jun 12, 2017 | CGTN (CCTV America)
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US opts out of G7 pledge calling Paris climate deal 'irreversible'
Jun 12, 2017 | The Associated Press
By Paolo Santalucia and Nicole Winfield
BOLOGNA, Italy (AP) — The United States refused Monday to sign on to a Group of Seven pledge that calls the Paris climate accord the “irreversible” global tool to address climate change.
The G-7 environment ministers issued a final communique Monday after their two-day meeting, the first since the United States announced it was withdrawing from the Paris climate pact. In a footnote to the communique, the United States said it wouldn’t join with the other six countries in reaffirming their Paris commitments, but said it was taking action on its own to reduce its carbon footprint.
“The United States will continue to engage with key international partners in a manner that is consistent with our domestic priorities, preserving both a strong economy and a healthy environment,” the footnote read.
As a result, the U.S. said it would not join those sections of the communique on climate and multilateral development banks.
The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, had attended the first few hours of the summit Sunday, but then left to attend a Cabinet meeting in Washington.
Presenting the communique Monday, Italy’s environment minister, Gian Luca Galletti, called the Paris accord “irreversible, non-negotiable and the only instrument possible to combat climate change.” He said the other G-7 countries hoped to continue “constructive dialogue” with the U.S., but insisted on the Paris parameters.
“Everything else for us is excluded,” he said.
The 2015 Paris agreement aims to prevent the Earth from heating up by any more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) since the start of the industrial age. Since the world has already warmed about 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit), the accord aims to ensure the threshold is not breached, with each nation setting goals to curb heat-trapping emissions.
All but a very few scientists say the overwhelming majority of global warming is man-made. Scientists have known since the 19th century that burning coal, oil and gas spews carbon dioxide into the air, which then acts like a blanket to trap heat on Earth.
President Donald Trump announced the U.S. was withdrawing from the Paris accord earlier this month, framing it as a “reassertion of America’s sovereignty.” He has said the U.S. could try to re-enter the deal under more favorable terms, but the European Union — and in particular Italy, France and Germany — have said the Paris accord cannot be renegotiated.
In a statement, the EPA said the U.S. had “reset the climate change discussion” at the G-7 meeting and stressed that it was a party to the 15-page communique, except for the four pages dealing with climate change and financing for sustainable development.MORE VIDEO:VIDEO: Kids play “lacrosse baseball” -- labaseball? -- on Dozer Park field after Sunday’s Chiefs game #chiefs #lacrosse
“Today’s action of reaching consensus makes clear that the Paris Agreement is not the only mechanism by which environmental stewardship can be demonstrated,” Pruitt said in a statement.
In fact, the final text doesn’t say the Paris accord is the only tool for tackling climate change. Rather, it says that the accord is “the global instrument for effectively and urgently tackling climate change and adapting to its effects.”
It says the six G-7 nations — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom, as well as the European Commission — agree that the Paris accord is “irreversible and its full integrity is key for the security and prosperity of our planet, societies and economies.”
While voicing dismay at the U.S. position, which was expected, environmental groups and concerned countries voiced optimism that the remaining six nations reaffirmed the Paris process and that the U.S. withdrawal had led to a groundswell of support elsewhere for the accord.
“Our hope is that together with big emerging economies we can turn our commitments into action — boldly enough and quickly enough — to protect the most vulnerable among us,” said Thoriq Ibrahim, the Maldives environment minister and chair of the Alliance of Small Island States.
France’s environment minister, Nicolas Hulot, said he hoped many countries would follow France’s lead in scaling up their pledges and accelerating the timetable on implementing Paris benchmarks in response to the U.S. withdrawal. He repeated that there is a new “economic model” to be found in developing clean energy.
“Let us make sure that Europe takes its part in this economic opportunity,” he said.
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Winfield reported from Rome.
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Hawaii rebels against Trump with a law to uphold the spirit of the Paris climate accord
Jun 7, 2017 | The Los Angeles Times
By Kurtis Lee
Amid a widening partisan divide over climate change, Hawaii lawmakers have a message for President Trump: The Paris agreement is needed.
Rebelling against the president’s decision last week to pull out of the international climate accord, Hawaii Gov. David Ige has signed into law a measure that aims to push Hawaii toward doing its part to achieve the worldwide greenhouse gas reductions the agreement calls for.ADVERTISING
It is the first law in the nation directly responding to the decision, though more are expected.
In addition to encouraging emissions cuts, the law signed Tuesday also promotes “environmental integrity” and the conservation of wetlands and forests — key tenets of the accord, which was signed in 2015 by nearly every country.Paid Post WHAT'S THIS?New Rule for U.S. Drivers
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The new legislation also committed Hawaii to the newly formed U.S. Climate Alliance, which consists of a dozen states and Puerto Rico that have promised to uphold the Paris climate agreement on the state level.
As a series of low-lying islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Hawaii is particularly vulnerable to global warming. For decades, rising sea levels and increased coastal flooding and erosion have harmed fragile coastal ecosystems, destroyed crops and damaged roads, structures and other infrastructure.
“Climate change is real, regardless of what others may say,” the Democratic governor said at a signing ceremony in Honolulu. “Hawaii is seeing the impacts firsthand. Tides are getting higher, biodiversity is shrinking, coral is bleaching, coastlines are eroding, weather is becoming more extreme. We must acknowledge these realities at home.”
He added: “We are the testing grounds…. We are especially aware of the limits of our natural environment.”
The Paris deal was forged among 195 countries with the aim of preventing the most devastating effects of global warming by limiting the temperature rise to “well below” 2 degrees Celsuis compared with pre-industrial times. Its targets were not binding, and scientists cautioned that more action would be needed. But the agreement was widely seen as the world’s best effort to fight climate change.
Last year, shortly before the accord took effect, President Obama called it “historic … in the fight to protect our planet for future generations.”
In withdrawing the U.S. from the accord, Trump said it undermined the economy and weakened national sovereignty. Besides the United States, the only countries not signed on are Syria, which is entering its sixth year of civil war, and Nicaragua, which wanted binding caps on emissions and penalties for countries that did not meet their commitments.
California, New York and other states pushed back almost immediately, vowing to abide by the ideals and tenets of the agreement.
This week, California Gov. Jerry Brown traveled to China for meetings with President Xi Jinping to discuss the issue.
Lawmakers in Hawaii had been awaiting Trump’s decision on the accord, having crafted the new legislation as he took office in January so it would be ready immediately if he fulfilled his campaign promise to pull out.
“We knew this was coming and wanted to make sure this state was in a position to move ahead,” said Hawaii Senate Majority Leader J. Kalani English, who has criticized Trump for calling climate change a hoax. “We want to be a part of the solution and slow down climate change.”
“If the president is not going to lead on climate change, it’s on the states,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “We’re not going to sit on the sidelines.”
English, who lives near the shore of Hana, Maui, said he saw rising sea levels firsthand. He grew up in the area, he said, and it’s clear the shoreline has come inland over the decades.
“Flooding happens on roads and where it never did before,” he said. “This is real.”
A 2014 study by the University of Hawaii projected that the islands would be drastically transformed as the climate becomes more arid and sea levels rise as much as 3 feet by the end of this century.
Increasing temperatures are also driving native forest birds on Kauai toward extinction, according to a study published last year in the journal Science Advances. Scientists found steep declines in the populations of honeycreepers, a famously diverse family of forest birds.
As a result of warming, Hawaii would also be especially hard hit by shortages of fresh water and shoreline loss, according to a report last year by the Environmental Protection Agency.
On Tuesday, Ige also signed a separate bill to create a Carbon Farming Task Force to support the development of sustainable agriculture practices in Hawaii.
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Jun 11, 2017 | The Morning Call
By Logan Hullinger
President Donald Trump's recent decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord has created an ideological divide among states.
Governors in New York, California and Hawaii immediately vowed to follow the accord's tenets, while governors in Maryland and New Hampshire voiced reservations about joining a movement without knowing its impact on their states.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf — up for re-election in 2018 in a state Republican Trump won in November — is tiptoeing along the fault line, trying to appeal to both sides as the leader of a state rich in fossil fuels and rugged natural beauty.
On one hand, he criticized the Republican president's decision as a long-term mistake that will give China a greater edge in energy jobs.
On the other hand, he has not put his signature on any of the various climate agreements that other state and local governments, colleges and corporations signed. Instead, he's convened an internal group that will not seek to reduce the state's fossil fuel economy but grow its green energy sector.
"Gov. Wolf believes the decision to withdraw from the Paris agreement is flawed and shortsighted, and puts America's competitiveness in the energy economy at risk," said J.J. Abbott, Wolf's spokesperson. "As a result of the president's decision, Governor Wolf is forming an internal working group to examine how Pennsylvania can increase the growth in Pennsylvania's economy from energy efficiency, natural gas, renewables and other parts of our energy portfolio."
That statement falls into the middle ground Wolf staked out on the environment since taking office in 2015.
Wolf ignored environmentalists' calls for a statewide ban on natural gas extraction using so-called fracking techniques, and supported the Shell Cracker Plant site in western Pennsylvania. But he also put a moratorium on new gas drilling in state parks, and called for an extraction tax on the drilled gas.
Wolf proposed a slight increase in the state Department of Environmental Protection's budget, but also recommended cutting the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources' budget nearly in half.
Last week, Wolf walked a red carpet at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a rare new coal mine in Somerset County. Trump used a video-hookup to wish the owners and workers well and to remind them they overwhelmingly voted for him in the election. One of Wolf's potential gubernatorial challengers, state Sen. Scott Wagner, R-York, also arrived at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
"He's treading softly," said G. Terry Madonna, pollster and political science professor at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster. "He is a governor of a state in which the energy is a huge part of the economy and more than anything else he's been practical. He's not a crusader ... but I wouldn't say he's not a supporter of the environment."
While Wolf and Wagner toured the coal mine, other elected state officials distanced themselves from the Paris accord, saying they face more pressing issues.
"Right now at the state level we're pretty focused on a budget," said House Majority Leader Dave Reed, R-Indiana, said Thursday, shortly after his chamber passed an expansive pension reform bill. "I understand there's a lot of things going on in DC, but I hope the governor stays focused on state issues."
Gene Barr, CEO of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, said he understands Wolf's position, but harbors his own questions about the Paris agreement in which signers agreed to a goal of limiting the century's global average temperature increase by no more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
"We certainly were hesitant about the [Obama] administration's idea to join the agreement," Barr said. "It would have very little environmental impact — but there's a lot of diversity of opinion. We don't have a set stance on the matter."
Pennsylvania has already done good work to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, Barr said, and he is sure "the state will continue to find ways to further the process to help the environment."
Other political figures across the state don't think current efforts are enough, and support the international pact.
Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto's response to Trump's remarks went viral after he openly condemned the president's reference to Pittsburgh in announcing his decision to remove the United States from the agreement.
"I was elected to represent Pittsburgh, not Paris," Trump said in his speech.
"My city will follow Paris," Peduto said in response to Trump's decision.
Some Lehigh Valley officials followed Peduto's lead.
Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski and Bethlehem Mayor Robert Donchez, for example, signed the Mayors National Climate Action Agenda, a movement to continue the efforts established by the climate accord. The pledge was signed by more than 200 mayors.
The We Are Still In campaign, led by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, received pledges from Apple, Google, and mayors across the country. Locally, Pawlowski, Donchez, Easton Mayor Sal Panto Jr., Lafayette College President Alison Byerly, Lehigh University President John Simon, Muhlenberg College President John Williams and Moravian College President Bryon Grigsby have added their names to the pledge.
In addition, the United States Climate Alliance, formed after the withdrawal from the Paris agreement, has 12 states and Puerto Rico signed onto the bipartisan group aiming to uphold the initial goals set by the agreement to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Pennsylvania is yet to become a part of the group.
PARIS CLIMATE ACCORD
The agreement: In 2015, the U.S. and nearly 200 other nations agreed to voluntarily reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to keep the global temperature increase this century to no more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
Why President Trump Administration wants to leave the pact: Trump believes said the carbon emission limitations the Obama administration agreed to highly cripple economic growth. He has called climate change a hoax created by the Chinese to hurt the U.S. economy.
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Auto makers unshaken by Trump's move on Paris accord
Jun 12, 2017 | Rubber and Plastics News
By Michael Wayland
DETROIT—President Trump's decision to withdraw from the 2015 Paris international climate treaty hasn't shaken auto makers' resolve to continue developing cleaner, more fuel-efficient vehicles.
General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and industry groups didn't condemn Trump's decision, but said their sustainability plans remain unchanged.
"GM will not waver from our commitment to the environment, and our position on climate change has not changed," the company said in a statement. "International agreements aside, we remain committed to creating a better environment."
Ford affirmed its position that "climate change is real," saying it remains "deeply committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in our vehicles and our facilities."
Most outspoken was Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who wrote in a Twitter message that Trump's decision would prompt him to resign from two presidential advisory panels on which he serves.
"Climate change is real," wrote Musk, who has touted his electric-vehicle and solar-energy businesses as direct responses to the dangers of climate change. "Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world."
Prior to Trump's announcement, Musk said he had done all he could to persuade Trump on the matter.
GM CEO Mary Barra, a member of the White House's top business advisory council along with Musk, has no plans to quit that group.
Barra's plans
"Mary Barra's participation on the President's Strategy and Policy Forum provides GM a seat at an important table to contribute to a constructive dialogue about key policy issues," the company said.
"The Forum continues to provide an opportunity to work with the administration and other corporate leaders on policies that support a strong and competitive economy and automotive industry."
Trump's announcement came the same day that GM released its annual sustainability report in which it outlined its environmental accomplishments and initiatives. In it, Barra said, "Environmental stewardship and sustainability are part of our business model and core to our operations."
The 2015 Paris climate agreements encompassed nearly all the world's nations in a commitment to reduce carbon emissions and accelerate the shift to renewable energy resources.
Supporters of the U.S. withdrawal said the pact would impose unfair environmental standards on the U.S. and endanger jobs in the fossil-fuel sector and other industries. In a speech last week, Trump called the decision "a reassertion of America's sovereignty," saying he was "elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris." (Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduta issued an executive order affirming the city's commitment to the accord and denounced Trump's "imprudent announcements.")
Trump said he wanted to negotiate a better deal for the U.S. But several world leaders said the deal is not open for renegotiation.
Impact on industry
Trump cited the negative impact of the treaty on the U.S. auto industry, among many others. But U.S. business leaders in many sectors, including energy, technology and manufacturing, have embraced the treaty. Auto industry groups last week underscored their commitment to the goals of the treaty, saying they were in line with consumer demand.
"Our job is to build and sell more fuel-efficient vehicles that produce less carbon and save consumers money at the pump, and when consumers go car-shopping today, they are seeing improved energy efficiency across all models," the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers said in a statement.
"We will continue providing our customers with these vehicles, here in the U.S. and around the world."
The Auto Alliance represents 12 auto makers that make up 70 percent of all car and light-truck sales in the U.S., including the Detroit auto makers, Toyota, BMW and Volkswagen.
John Bozzella, CEO of the Association of Global Automakers, which represents 12 auto companies and five suppliers, said its members "remain committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and to producing fuel-efficient vehicles in every segment. Today's decision doesn't change that."
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Jun 12, 2017 | DMA 14- NBC
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Rough Transcript:
Seattle city council voted to uphold commitments by the united states in the paris climate agreement. It came two months after president trump with drew. allison was there as councilmembers got a standing ovation. Weneed to get aggressive on this. one city can make a difference. if not seattle, who? let's step up at your service. In a packed city council room, signs lined the back wall sending a message to council the city should move forward with what the president decided to stop. >> the cities and states will step forward to demonstrate to the rest of the world that the united states will in fact live up to the paris climate agreements through our own local and sub regional actions. Councilman mike o'brian proposed the resolution and adults passed it, kids were there to demand it. My future is in grave danger because the adults supposed to be protecting me have left me and my entire generation with the future that is unraveling and full of disaster. the paris climate agreement aims to keep global warning below .15 celius and concern that may not be aggressive enough. This should have started decades ago. Please preserve my future.
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Jun 12, 2017 | DMA 14- ABC
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Rough Transcript:
the president has decided that the united states should leave the paris climate accord, but the seattle city council has other plans. cities and states will step forward to demonstrate to the rest of the world that the united states will in fact live up to paris climate agreements through our own local and subregional actions.eric: this resolution calls on puget sound energy to stop operations at a coal-fired power plant in montana, as well as call attention to projects in our state that go against the paris accord, including a proposed methanol refinery in cowlitz county.
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Jun 12, 2017 | CGTN (CCTV America)
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Rough Transcript:
The u. s. refused to sign the group of seven industrialized country statement on climate change the g. seven environment ministers had met with the head of the u. s. environmental protection agency in a city that have said they're not interested in renegotiating the paris climb a deal with the u. s. something president trump had mentioned in recent weeks he's got a lot of that i think that we're at all we work to build bridges not direct walls they leave germany france japan canada the u. k. and you declared strongly that the paris agreement is irreversible nonnegotiable that the only possible to the combat climate change we hope that we will be able to pursue constructive dialogue on the basis of this point with the united states in the future for us any other option is excluded and if not found that he'll withdraw the u. s. from the paris accord he said that it will head the american economy black as and other country out of chronic disadvantage.
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